1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates systems for retrieving and playing pre-recorded audio data, and more specifically to a method and an apparatus for skipping tracks or playing tracks from discs in a compact disc (CD) player or a digital video disc (DVD) player.
2. Related Art
Many compact disc players allow a user to play a sequence of tracks from one or more compact discs stored in the compact disc player. This sequence can cycle through tracks from the compact disks in a number of ways, including randomly, sequentially or in a pre-specified sequence.
However, a user of a compact disc player often prefers not to listen to certain tracks on certain CDs, because the user finds these tracks unappealing, boring or distasteful. Sony Corporation produces a 200-disc MegaStorage CD changer (model number CDP-CX255) that provides a limited ability to skip certain tracks. The MegaStorage CD changer can be programmed to skip selected tracks of a CD that is located in a particular slot in the MegaStorage CD changer.
This solution is far from optimal because CDs can be moved or removed from the CD changer. For example, suppose a particular CD is placed in the fifth slot in the MegaStorage CD changer and the changer is programmed to skip the third track of the fifth slot. If another CD is placed in the fifth slot, the third track of the CD contained in the fifth slot will be also be skipped. Hence, when a user inserts a new CD into the MegaStorage changer, the user may be forced to reprogram the changer.
The same problem is encountered for users who preprogram a sequence of tracks to be played from a CD changer. For example, suppose a CD changer is programmed to play the third track from a CD that is placed in the fifth slot in the CD changer. If another CD is placed in the fifth slot, the third track of that CD will be played instead of the third track of the original disc. Again, when a user inserts a new CD in the CD changer, the user may be forced to reprogram the changer.
What is needed is a method and an apparatus for skipping tracks on CDs in a CD changer that does not rely on programming the CD changer to skip tracks from specific slots in the CD changer.
Additionally what is needed is a method and an apparatus for programming tracks to be played from CDs in a CD changer that does not rely on programming the CD changer to play tracks from specific slots in the CD changer.